patent wars on aids drugs

public health or corporate wealth?

ENGLISH SPANISH

general
knowledge
analysis
reality
regions

introduction

The AIDS epidemic has claimed the lives of over 20 million people, and current estimates place the number of people living with HIV at 38 million. Of these, nearly five million were newly infected in 2003 - the greatest number to be infected in a single year since the beginning of the epidemic.

The drug research and production industry is not a cheap one. Several million dollars can go into the development of a new drug. The global pharmaceutical industry insists that patents provide incentive to research and produce more drugs. Were it not for the monopolistic rights that drug companies hold, it would not be worthwhile to invest time and money that it takes to develop new drugs. It is obvious that if these pharmaceutical companies do not produce drugs, there will be no drugs to fight over.

The impact of this pandemic varies in scale within regions; some countries are more affected than others, and within countries there are usually wide variations in infection levels between different areas. UNAIDS produces an annual epidemic update in conjunction with WHO. The 2003 AIDS epidemic update reveals a steady increase both in the number of people living with HIV/AIDS as well number of AIDS related deaths worldwide. Stigma and discrimination surrounding the issue has been a major hindrance to combating the epidemic in all regions.

The rate of increase is significantly higher in the Sub-Saharan region in comparison to the infection rates in other regions. However, the epidemic is rapidly emerging in several other regions. Unsafe sexual practices and injecting drug users are the prime reasons for driving the HIV epidemic upwards.

Efforts are underway, globally, in an attempt to combat the epidemic. Prevention and treatment efforts are being expanded on a continual basis. Political commitment is growing stronger. Funds allocated for this project are increasing. Regardless, when measured against the magnitude of the global epidemic, the efforts currently being invested worldwide to combat HIV/AIDS are simply not enough. We are at the crossroads: we can inch along making miniscule progress or turn around and invest all our knowledge, resources and commitment to fight this pandemic. The choice is, while daunting, clear.

references

permissions references books online sources

permissions

All images, unless otherwise stated below, are the work of ThinkQuest Team TQ 00460 Images used in the intro, gallery and the headers have been obtained from various sources and used within the bounds of license agreements for web publication and modification.

references

books Doha and Beyond : The Future of the Multilateral Trading System Press Syndicate of the Univ. of Cambridge. Cambridge Univ. Press, WTO 2004. by Mike Moore The Doha Round and Financial Services Negotiations AEI Studies on Services Trade Negotiations, AEI Press, 2003 by Sydney J. Key Global Economic Prospects 2004: Realizing the Development Promise of the Doha Agenda Office of the Publisher, World Bank, 2004 by World Bank After Doha : The Changing Attitude and Ideas of the New WTO Round Transnational Publishers, Incorporated; March 1, 2002 by Terence P. Stewart The TRIPS regime of Patent Rights Kluwer Law International; November 1, 2002 by Nuno Pires De Carvalho From GATTS to TRIPS: The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH; May 1996 by Friedrich-Karl Beier, Gerrick Schricker and Gerhard Schricker WIPO Asian Regional Round Table on the Implementation of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights: Singapore, 1997 World Intellectual Property; February 1, 1997 by World Intellectual Property Organization Global Intellectual Property Rights: Knowledge, Access and Development Palgrave Macmillan; September 6, 2002 by Peter Drahos, Oxfam Gb and Ruth Mayne The Patent Process Wiley; 1st edition December 15, 2001 by Craig Hovey Whose Trade Organization?: A Comprehensive Guide to the World Trade Organization, Second Edition New Press; 2 edition March 25, 2004 by Lori Wallach, Patrick Woodall and Ralph Nader Behind the Scenes at the WTO : The Real World of International Trade Negotiations Zed Books; December 5, 2003 by Fatoumata Jawara, Aileen Kwa The $800 Million Pill : The Truth behind the Cost of New Drugs University of California Press; ISBN: B0001FUA1I; January 2004 by Merrill Goozner Parallel Importation in U.S. Trademark Law: (Contributions in Legal Studies) Greenwood Press; January 30, 1994 by Timothy H. Hiebert Economic Effects of Compulsory Patent Licensing (Monograph Series in Finance and Economics, 1977-2) New York Univ; December 1, 1977 by Frederic M Scherer Nolo's Patents for Beginners Nolo Press; 3rd edition, August 1, 2002 by David Pressman and Richard Stim The WTO and the Doha Round: The Changing Face of World Trade (Global Trade and Finance) Kluwer Law International; December 1, 2003 by Ross Buckley Private Power, Public Law : The Globalization of Intellectual Property Rights (Cambridge Studies in International Relations) Cambridge University Press; May 15, 2003 by Susan K. Sell, Steve Smith, Thomas Biersteker, Chris Brown, Phil Cerny, Joseph Grieco and A. J. R. Groom Against the Odds: The Story of AIDS Drug Development, Politics, and Profits Harper Collins, New York ; 1992 by Arno, P. and Frieden, K. Global AIDS: Myths and Facts, Tools for Fighting the AIDS Pandemic Consortium; November 1, 2002 by Alexander Irwin and Joyce Millen Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Intellectual Property in Practice) Sweet & Maxwell Ltd; November 28, 1996 by Michael Blakeney

references

online sources (links were tested and active as of 9/14/2004) Additional links relevant to any sections have been included as appropriate in the respective sections. World Trade Organization : Ministerial declaration WT/MIN(01)/DEC/1 : 20 November 2001 Intellectual Property: a power tool for economic growth 2004 Attacking AIDS with a 'Cocktail' Therapy, FDA Consumer Magazine July - August, 1999 by John Henkel Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS information extracted from various pages throughout the website. 3 x 5 initiative July 2004 Basics of AIDS information extracted from various pages throughout the website. Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Information for timeline, random facts and random quotes gathered from here. Avert, HIV & AIDS History Information for timeline, random facts and random quotes gathered from here. International AIDS Society Information for timeline, random facts and random quotes gathered from here. University of California, San Francisco, AIDS History Project Information for timeline, random facts and random quotes gathered from here. United Nations Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS) Information for timeline, random facts and random quotes gathered from here. San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Twenty Years of HIV Policy: A Snapshot of the Epidemic Information for timeline, random facts and random quotes gathered from here. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Information for timeline, random facts and random quotes gathered from here. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Information for timeline, random facts and random quotes gathered from here. AIDS-Arts Timeline Information for timeline, random facts and random quotes gathered from here. Aegis, An AIDS History Information for timeline, random facts and random quotes gathered from here. Kaisernetwork.org:Interviews Interviews (with photos) and daily news provided courtesy of kaisernetwork.org. Further reprinting prohibited. Oxfam America Photos for gallery courtesy of oxfamamerica.org (used with permission). Further reprinting prohibited. Overwiew of Patents and the Patent Process Pierce Atwood, 2003